The present disclosure relates to methods of detecting, quantifying, and identifying a fungal species in a sample, particularly for the detection or diagnosis of jejunal hemorrhage syndrome.
Jejunal hemorrhage syndrome (JHS), also known as hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) and dead gut syndrome, is a newly-described disorder primarily affecting dairy cattle. Symptoms of JHS include point-source sub-mucosal hematomas, and can include ruptured hematomas with exsanguination into the lumen of the jejunum. The hematomas originate in the jejunal submucosa, and they dissect the mucosa from the underlying connective tissue. Despite the hemorrhage, clotting is unaffected.
JHS is characterized by a sudden drop in milk production, abdominal pain due to obstructed bowel, and anemia. Death generally comes within 48 hours from the onset of the obstructing blood clot plug. Fatal factors are presumed to be anemia, combined with digesta stagnation in much of the severely dilated small intestine proximal to the plug. First described in 1991, JHS incidence is increasing (see, e.g., Cantor, “Jejunal hemorrhage syndrome: a new emerging disease of dairy cows?”Washington State Vet. Med. Assoc. Newslett., July, 1999; St. Jean and Anderson, “Intraluminal-intramural hemorrhage of the small intestine in cattle,” Current Veterinary Therapy Food Animal Practice 4th Ed, Howard and Smith eds., Philadelphia. W. B. Saunders. 539:1999) and is responsible for at least 2% of the deaths of dairy animals in the United States (Baker, “Be on the lookout for hemorrhagic bowel syndrome,” Hoard's Dairyman, 776, November, 2002).
The cause of JHS is unknown; many potential causes have been investigated and discarded. Potential etiological agents that have been eliminated include parasites, bovine viral diarrhea, coccidia, salmonella, coagulopathies, intestinal foreign bodies, physical obstructions, and deformities including volvulus and intussuception. Furthermore, analyses of diets, ages of cows, levels of milk production and a full spectrum of blood chemistry and biochemical assets have failed to reveal a consistent clinical correlate to JHS.